Search Articles
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — California Governor Gavin Newsom repeatedly derided Donald Trump as he signed an election bill on Wednesday, saying stronger guardrails are needed in the wake of a “delusional” president.
The legislation — Senate Bill 73 — is intended to strengthen safeguards against election interference. It places new restrictions on law enforcement, prohibiting someone from allowing officers access to take possession of voting equipment, unless allowed by court order under specific circumstances.
It also empowers the state attorney general or secretary of state to object to a local election official’s decision allowing officers to be stationed at a voting site. Those who violate the law could face criminal penalties.
“There’s no rules anymore with the Trump administration,” Newsom said moments before signing the bill. “He doesn’t believe in free and fair elections.”
Newsom’s signature made it effective immediately. California’s primary election is this coming Tuesday.
Authors of the bill pointed to a series of actions that led to the legislation and its passage this week — including Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco’s seizure of some 650,000 ballots.
Bianco obtained search warrants and seized ballots after November’s election on Proposition 50, which redrew the state’s congressional district maps and gave Democrats an edge. A citizen’s group claimed its audit found 46,000 more ballots had been counted than were cast in the Southern California county.
The state Supreme Court last month ordered Bianco to stop his investigation.
“It is a sad day for California when corrupt politicians continue to pass laws to criminalize those who expose their corruption (Nick Shirley bill) and those investigations into voter/election fraud,” said Bianco, a Republican candidate for governor, in a statement to Courthouse News. “Eventually, voters will care enough about the truth to use their ballots to rid ourselves of corrupt politicians.”
Assemblymember Gail Pellerin — a Santa Cruz Democrat, bill co-author and former elections official — said she was “horrified” when she learned that Bianco had taken the ballots.
“Let me be clear,” Pellerin said. “Election workers should never feel fear for simply doing their jobs.”
State Senator Sabrina Cervantes, a Riverside Democrat who introduced the bill along with Santa Ana Democratic state Senator Tom Umberg, said Bianco’s actions broke the chain of custody with the affected ballots.
“That is against the law,” Cervantes added.
The sheriff’s investigation in her county wasn’t the only impetus for the bill.
Newsom pointed to the FBI raiding Fulton County, Georgia, election offices in January. Agents took over 600 ballot boxes and other items connected to the 2020 election.
Trump has repeatedly claimed he won the 2020 election. In a phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger after that election, Trump asked the fellow Republican to “find” him more votes.
President Joe Biden won Georgia in the 2020 election.
Closer to home, the U.S. Justice Department in November sent election monitors to five Golden State counties, including Riverside County. Authors of a bill analysis wrote that an assistant U.S. attorney general said later that “there were no major headlines out of that work.”
The Justice Department early this year also responded to a complaint about a noncitizen receiving a vote-by-mail ballot. Federal officials requested voter records from Orange County, which it received. However, information like driver’s license and Social Security numbers were removed. The department then sought those records in court.
“This is all happening in plain sight,” Newsom said, adding: “There’s a pattern. That’s what this legislation begins to address.”
Newsom drew a line from these actions to Trump’s call to Texas Governor Greg Abbott. The president asked Abbott to redraw his congressional districts to get him five more Republican seats. That move spawned California’s Proposition 50 and, ultimately, its passage.
California’s governor also pointed to Louisiana temporarily halting its primary election, already in progress, after a U.S. Supreme Court decision enabled the state to redraw its maps and eliminate a Black-majority district.
“Jim Crow 2.0,” Newsom said. “These guys are not screwing around. They’re relentless."
“That’s why we have to step up and draw the line,” he added.
Subscribe to our free newsletters
Our weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.
